Slaters 50/50 Review

One of my intentions for this little blog was to also post some reviews on restaurant dishes. I haven’t really done much of that, but I’m hoping to change that up a bit and post a few reviews in the weeks ahead.

I decided that Slaters 50/50 Burgers by Design would be my first place to review. I went with an old room mate, Sarah, since both her and I had heard great things about Slaters. They have three locations, Anaheim Hills, Huntington Beach and San Diego. We ventured over to the Anaheim Hills location which is tucked back into a shopping plaza off of Santa Ana Canyon Road. Easy to get to from the 91 freeway but know that the sign is small and easy to miss. Look for the Curves which is to the left of Slaters.

The atmosphere is fun walking in and though we arrived at 5:00 on a Sunday, there was a fair amount of people waiting to be seated. Sarah and I headed to the bar since there were a few high top tables available. They have a full bar, with a decent amount of beers on tap (28). They make a few fun dinner and dessert cocktails and a lot of people seemed to be there for the bar atmosphere. It is very separate from the restaurant with a pool table and sports on their dozen or so TV screens. Fun place to hang out and since they are open till 2AM every night, I can see it being the local go-to place for a late dinner.

Sarah and I were a bit overwhelmed by the menu because not only do they have some unique burgers listed, they also dropped off a few of their Make Your Own burger sheets and pencils which took their menu to a whole new level. I think of my poor indecisive older sister and wince thinking of how long it would take her to choose her burger…haha.

It’s definitely worth noting that bacon is a big feature of their restaurant. 50/50 in their title and signature burger patty means 50% ground beef and 50% bacon. Are you drooling yet? They also have a bacon infused Ketchup, bacon seasoning for the fries (on tables in restaurant side), a baconnaise spread for their burger, a bacon mary (instead of a bloody mary), bacon brownie, bacon milkshake, turkey bacon and thick cut bacon that can go on your burger. Bacon lovers unite!

A few other unique menu items include a Peanut Butter and Jelly burger (our waitress said it was her favorite, but as delicious as that does not sound, we graciously passed on that!), Thanksgiving Burger complete with cranberry sauce and sage mayonnaise, Burger Carbonara or what I like to call heart attack on a bun, Irish Quesadilla with mashed potatoes inside, Fried Chicken and pancakes which forgoes the bun and subs in pancakes, and a Vampire Dip that sounds worse then it looks.

They do not serve fries with their burgers, however, they do offer a combination plate of picking 2-6 ‘appetizer’ items that are great for sharing. their appetizers include french fries with bacon infused ketchup, sweet potato fries with pumpkin sauce, friend dill pickle chips with their mustard sauce, beer-battered onion strings with house made BBQ, fried artichoke hearts with sage mayo, and panko fried mac n’cheese with Tapatio ranch.

Can you believe with all those crazy options on the menu, that I was goofy enough to get their California Chicken Sandwich? Haha…I couldn’t decide on making my own or trying one of theirs and I had seen a picture on their website for the chicken sandwich and it looked great. However, as I began to see other people’s burgers come out I quickly regretted it my order. Sarah ordered the Big Daddy Melt which includes cheddar and swiss cheese, grilled onions, horseradish aioli on grilled rye bread. She subbed out the rye for one of their whole wheat buns. My chicken sandwich had avocado mash, thick cut bacon and blue cheese dressing on the ciabatta roll. We also ordered a pick 2 of the appetizers and chose the regular and sweet potato fries. I was very interested in trying that bacon infused ketchup.

So, how was it you ask…? I’m sad to say that we were not as impressed as as we both hoped it would be. Maybe it was all the hype, but we both walked away saying that it was just okay, but we had enjoyed better burgers at other places. Sara had a bunch of work friends that raved about the place so we both want to find out what everyone is ordering that they love so much and then go back and try again.
Another bummer was that our fries came out cold like they had been sitting out for a long while. Not yummy at all, but the bacon infused ketchup was amazing! Bacon infused is an understatement because it tastes like bacon but also has pieces of bacon in it! That little pot they gave me was NOT enough to enjoy for one, let alone share. Slather that stuff on anything and I would eat it! The pumpkin sauce they place with the sweet potato fries was great too. Very sweet and they felt more dessert like with that dip then the friend of a burger, but not terrible either.

Another surprisingly delicious thing was their pickles. They tasted homemade which is my favorite kind of dill pickle. Great garnish for the plate and made me want to try their fried dill pickle chips….something to order next time. Just looking at the menu you can see they have major potential for great tasting burgers. I asked Sarah if I could try a bit of the meat from her burger and I admit it was pretty awesome! One thing I loved about my chicken sandwich was that thick cut bacon. I pulled out some of my chicken toward the end and the last few bites of my sandwich were actually the best with just the bacon and avocado mash on the ciabatta roll. Awesome! I could have just had that on my sandwich and been a happy girl.

As bummed as we were I still have hope for liking Slaters. I want to hear from others who have gone and find out what it good so that I can do a better job ordering next time. Maybe our waitress is right and the PB and J burger is the way to go! I can see it being balanced with the salty and sweet, but I’m not so sure. If you want to go with me and order it I’ll try a bite of yours and be convinced! Post your reviews of Slaters 50/50 burgers when you get a chance to visit. I want to know what they do well!!

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Published by Jessica

I love to cook but let's be real..while this blog was meant to be about that...life happens...and quickly...when you get married and then pregnant 3 months later! While it would be dreamy to write all about novice cooking adventures I'm a novice at a lot more then cooking these days! So, you are officially welcome to the ramblings of this novice cook, wife, and mother!
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